Augustine: CONFESSIONES

multa satagit cor meum, domine, in hac inopia vitae meae, pulsatum verbis sanctae scripturae tuae, et ideo plerumque in sermone copiosa est egestas humanae intellegentiae, quia plus loquitur inquisitio quam inventio, et longior est petitio quam impetratio, et operosior est manus pulsans quam sumens. tenemus promissum: quis corrumpet illud? si deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?

my heart is busy about many things, o lord, in this indigence of my life, struck by the words of your holy scripture; and therefore in speech for the most part copious is the poverty of human intelligence, because inquiry speaks more than invention, and petition is longer than impetration, and the hand that knocks is more toilsome than that which receives. we hold the promise: who will corrupt it? if god is for us, who against us?

'petite et accipietis, quaerite et invenietis, pulsate et aperietur vobis. omnis enim qui petit accipit, et quaerens inveniet, et pulsanti aperietur.' promissa tua sunt, et quis falli timeat cum promittit veritas?

'Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it shall be opened.' They are your promises, and who would fear to be deceived when Truth promises?

12.2.2

confitetur altitudini tuae humilitas linguae meae, quoniam tu fecisti caelum et terram: hoc caelum quod video terramque quam calco, unde est haec terra quam porto, tu fecisti. sed ubi est caelum caeli, domine, de quo audivimus in voce psalmi: 'caelum caeli domino, terram autem dedit filiis hominum'? ubi est caelum quod non cernimus, cui terra est hoc omne quod cernimus? hoc enim totum corporeum non ubique totum ita cepit speciem pulchram in novissimis, cuius fundus est terra nostra, sed ad illud caelum caeli etiam terrae nostrae caelum terra est.

The humility of my tongue confesses to your altitude, since you made heaven and earth: this heaven that I see and the earth which I tread, from which is this earth that I carry, you made. But where is the heaven of heaven, Lord, of which we have heard in the voice of the psalm: 'the heaven of heaven is the Lord’s, but the earth he gave to the sons of men'? Where is the heaven that we do not discern, to which all this that we discern is earth? For this whole corporeal [realm], not everywhere as a whole, has thus taken a fair species in its lowest parts, whose foundation is our earth; but with respect to that heaven of heaven, even the heaven of our earth is earth.

et hoc utrumque magnum corpus non absurde terra est ad illud nescio quale caelum quod domino est, non filiis hominum.

and both these great bodies are not absurdly earth in relation to that I-know-not-what heaven which is the Lord’s, not the sons of men.

12.3.3

et nimirum haec terra erat invisibilis et incomposita, et nescio qua profunditas abyssi, super quam non erat lux quia nulla species erat illi, unde iussisti ut scriberetur quod 'tenebrae erant super abyssum.' quid aliud quam lucis absentia? ubi enim lux esset, si esset, nisi super esset eminendo et inlustrando? ubi ergo lux nondum erat, quid erat adesse tenebras nisi abesse lucem?

and surely this earth was invisible and uncomposed, and some I-know-not-what depth of the abyss, over which there was not light because there was no appearance to it, whence you commanded that it be written that 'darkness was over the abyss.' what else than the absence of light? for where would light be, if it were, except it were above by being eminent and by illumining? where therefore light was not yet, what was it for darkness to be present except for light to be absent?

super itaque erant tenebrae quia super lux aberat, sicut sonus ubi non est, silentium est. et quid est esse ibi silentium nisi sonum ibi non esse? nonne tu, domine, docuisti hanc animam quae tibi confitetur?

Over it, therefore, there was darkness, because above it light was absent, just as where sound is not, there is silence. And what is it for there to be silence there, if not that sound is not there? Did you not, Lord, teach this soul which confesses to you?

nonne tu, domine, docuisti me quod, priusquam istam informem materiam formares atque distingueres, non erat aliquid, non color, non figura, non corpus, non spiritus? non tamen omnino nihil: erat quaedam informitas sine ulla specie.

Did you not, Lord, teach me that, before you formed and distinguished that formless matter, there was not anything—no color, no figure, no body, no spirit? Not, however, altogether nothing: there was a certain formlessness without any species.

12.4.4

quid ergo vocaretur, quo etiam sensu tardioribus utcumque insinuaretur, nisi usitato aliquo vocabulo? quid autem in omnibus mundi partibus reperiri potest propinquius informitati omnimodae quam terra et abyssus? minus enim speciosa sunt pro suo gradu infimo quam cetera superiora perlucida et luculenta omnia.

What, then, should it be called, by which it might somehow be insinuated even to those slower in sense, unless by some customary word? And what, in all the parts of the world, can be found nearer to all-around formlessness than earth and the abyss? For these are less beautiful, in keeping with their lowest rank, than the other higher things, all of them perlucid and luculent.

cur ergo non accipiam informitatem materiae, quam sine specie feceras unde speciosum mundum faceres, ita commode hominibus intimatiam, ut appellaretur terra invisibilis et incomposita.

Why, then, should I not accept the formlessness of matter, which you had made without form, whence you might make the beautiful world, thus suitably intimated to human beings, that it be called an invisible and unformed earth.

12.5.5

ea quaerit cogitatio quid sensus attingat et dicit sibi, 'non est intellegibilis forma sicut vita, sicut iustitia, quia materies est corporum, neque sensibilis, quoniam quid videatur et quid sentiatur in invisibili et incomposita non est,' dum sibi haec dicit humana cogitatio, conetur eam vel nosse ignorando vel ignorare noscendo?

Thought seeks that which sense touches and says to itself, 'it is not an intelligible form like life, like justice, because it is the matter of bodies, nor is it sensible, since what is to be seen and what is to be sensed is not present in the invisible and incomposite'; while human thought says these things to itself, does it attempt either to know it by not-knowing or to not-know by knowing?

12.6.6

ego vero, domine, si totum confitear tibi ore meo et calamo meo, quidquid de ista materia docuisti me, cuius antea nomen audiens et non intellegens, narrantibus mihi eis qui non intellegerent, eam cum speciebus innumeris et variis cogitabam et ideo non eam cogitabam. foedas et horribiles formas perturbatis ordinibus volvebat animus, sed formas tamen, et informe appellabam non quod careret forma, sed quod talem haberet ut, si appareret, insolitum et incongruum aversaretur sensus meus et conturbaretur infirmitas hominis. verum autem illud quod cogitabam non privatione omnis formae sed comparatione formosiorum erat informe, et suadebat vera ratio ut omnis formae qualescumque reliquias omnino detraherem, si vellem prorsus informe cogitare et non poteram.

But as for me, Lord, if I wholly confess to you with my mouth and my reed-pen whatever you have taught me about that matter—whose name I had previously heard without understanding it, and, with people who did not understand it telling me of it, I conceived it along with innumerable and various species, and therefore I was not conceiving it—the mind was revolving foul and horrible forms with disturbed orders, yet still forms; and I called it “formless,” not because it lacked form, but because it had such a form that, if it appeared, my sense would shrink from it as unusual and incongruous, and the infirmity of man would be thrown into turmoil. But in truth, that which I was thinking was “formless” not by privation of every form but by comparison with more beautiful ones; and true reason was urging that I should utterly strip away every remnant of any form whatsoever, if I wished to conceive what is altogether formless—and I could not.

citius enim non esse censebam quod omni forma privaretur quam cogitabam quiddam inter formam et nihil, nec formatum nec nihil, informe prope nihil. et cessavit mens mea interrogare hinc spiritum meum plenum imaginibus formatorum corporum et eas pro arbitrio mutantem atque variantem, et intendi in ipsa corpora eorumque mutabilitatem altius inspexi, qua desinunt esse quod fuerant et incipiunt esse quod non erant, eundemque transitum de forma in formam per informe quiddam fieri suspicatus sum, non per omnino nihil. sed nosse cupiebam, non suspicari.

for I was deeming that that which would be deprived of every form would more swiftly not-be, than I was thinking of a certain something between form and nothing—neither formed nor nothing, formless, almost nothing. And my mind ceased to question from this quarter my spirit, full of images of formed bodies and changing and varying them at arbitrium, and I bent my attention upon the bodies themselves and looked more deeply into their mutability, whereby they cease to be what they had been and begin to be what they were not; and I suspected that this same transit from form into form takes place through a certain formless something, not through absolute nothing. But I longed to know, not to suspect.

et si totum tibi confiteatur vox et stilus meus, quidquid de ista quaestione enodasti mihi, quis legentium capere durabit? nec ideo tamen cessabit cor meum tibi dare honorem et canticum laudis de his quae dictare non sufficit. mutabilitas enim rerum mutabilium ipsa capax est formarum omnium in quas mutantur res mutabiles.

and even if my voice and my stylus were to confess to you in full whatever about this question you have unraveled for me, who of the readers will endure to grasp it? nor for that reason, however, will my heart cease to give to you honor and a canticle of praise for those things which it does not suffice to dictate. for the mutability of mutable things is itself capable of all the forms into which mutable things are changed.

et haec quid est? numquid animus? numquid corpus?

and this, what is it? is it perhaps the mind? is it perhaps the body?

numquid species animi vel corporis? si dici posset 'nihil aliquid' et 'est non est,' hoc eam dicerem; et tamen iam utcumque erat, ut species caperet istas visibiles et compositas.

Is it perhaps a species of the mind or of the body? If it could be said ‘nothing something’ and ‘is not is,’ this I would call it; and yet already somehow it was, so that it might take on those visible and composite species.

12.7.7

et unde utcumque erat, nisi esset abs te, a quo sunt omnia, in quantumcumque sunt? sed tanto a te longius, quanto dissimilius, neque enim locis. itaque tu, domine, qui non es alias aliud et alias aliter, sed idipsum et idipsum et idipsum, sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, dominus deus omnipotens, in principio, quod est de te, in sapientia tua, quae nata est de substantia tua, fecisti aliquid et de nihilo.

and whence was it at all, unless it were from you, from whom are all things, insofar as they are? but the farther from you, the more dissimilar—not, indeed, by places. and so you, Lord, who are not at one time one thing and at other times otherwise, but the selfsame and the selfsame and the selfsame, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, in the beginning, which is of you, in your Wisdom, which was born of your substance, you made something also out of nothing.

fecisti enim caelum et terram non de te. nam esset aequale unigenito tuo ac per hoc et tibi, et nullo modo iustum esset, ut aequale tibi esset quod de te non esset. et aliud praeter te non erat unde faceres ea, deus, una trinitas et trina unitas, et ideo de nihilo fecisti caelum et terram, magnum quiddam et parvum quiddam, quoniam omnipotens et bonus es ad facienda omnia bona, magnum caelum et parvam terram, duo quaedam, unum prope te, alterum prope nihil, unum quo superior tu esses, alterum quo inferius nihil esset.

for you made heaven and earth not out of yourself; for it would be equal to your Only-begotten and through this to you, and in no way would it be just that what was not from you should be equal to you. And there was nothing other than you whence you might make them, O God, one Trinity and threefold Unity, and therefore out of nothing you made heaven and earth, a certain great thing and a certain small thing, since you are omnipotent and good for making all good things: the great heaven and the small earth—two certain things, one near you, the other near nothing—one by which you would be superior, the other by which nothing would be inferior.

12.8.8

sed illud caelum caeli tibi, domine; terra autem, quam dedisti filiis hominum cernendam atque tangendam, non erat talis qualem nunc cernimus et tangimus. invisibilis enim erat et incomposita, et abyssus erat super quam non erat lux, aut tenebrae erant super abyssum, id est magis quam in abysso. ista quippe abyssus aquarum iam visibilium etiam in profundis suis habet speciei suae lucem utcumque sensibilem piscibus et repentibus in suo fundo animantibus.

but that heaven of heavens is for you, Lord; the earth, however, which you gave to the sons of men to be perceived and touched, was not such as we now perceive and touch. for it was invisible and incomposite, and there was an abyss over which there was not light, or darkness was upon the abyss, that is, more than in the abyss. for this abyss of waters, now visible, even in its depths has a light of its own species, somehow perceptible to fishes and to creeping things, living creatures on its bottom.

illud autem totum prope nihil erat, quoniam adhuc omnino informe erat; iam tamen erat quod formari poterat. tu enim, domine, fecisti mundum de materia informi, quam fecisti de nulla re paene nullam rem, unde faceres magna, quae miramur filii hominum. valde enim mirabile hoc caelum corporeum, quod firmamentum inter aquam et aquam secundo die post conditionem lucis dixisti, 'fiat', et sic est factum.

but that whole was almost nothing, since it was still altogether without form; yet already there was what could be formed. For you, Lord, made the world from formless matter, which you made from no thing—an almost nothing—from which you would make great things, which we sons of men marvel at. For very wondrous is this corporeal heaven, which, as the firmament between water and water, on the second day after the establishment of light, you said, “let it be,” and thus it was made.

quod firmamentum vocasti caelum, sed caelum terrae huius et maris, quae fecisti tertio die dando speciem visibilem informi materiae, quam fecisti ante omnem diem. iam enim feceras et caelum ante omnem diem, sed caelum caeli huius, quia in principio feceras caelum et terram. terra autem ipsa quam feceras informis materies erat, quia invisibilis erat et incomposita, et tenebrae super abyssum.

which firmament you called heaven, but the heaven of this earth and sea, which you made on the third day by giving a visible appearance to the formless matter, which you had made before every day. For already you had also made heaven before every day, but the heaven of this heaven, because in the beginning you had made heaven and earth. But the earth itself which you had made was formless matter, because it was invisible and incomposite, and darkness was over the abyss.

de qua terra invisibili et incomposita, de qua informitate, de quo paene nihilo faceres haec omnia quibus iste mutabilis mundus constat et non constat, in quo ipsa mutabilitas apparet, in qua sentiri et dinumerari possunt tempora, quia rerum mutationibus fiunt tempora dum variantur et vertuntur species, quarum materies praedicta est terra invisibilis.

of that invisible and uncomposed earth, of that formlessness, of that almost-nothing, you made all these things by which this mutable world both consists and does not consist, in which mutability itself appears, in which times can be sensed and enumerated, because by the changes of things times come to be while the species are varied and turned, whose matter is the aforesaid invisible earth.

12.9.9

ideoque spiritus, doctor famuli tui, cum te commemorat fecisse in principio caelum et terram, tacet de temporibus, silet de diebus. nimirum enim caelum caeli, quod in principio fecisti, creatura est aliqua intellectualis. quamquam nequaquam tibi, trinitati, coaeterna, particeps tamen aeternitatis tuae, valde mutabilitatem suam prae dulcedine felicissimae contemplationis tuae cohibet et sine ullo lapsu ex quo facta est inhaerendo tibi excedit omnem volubilem vicissitudinem temporum.

and therefore the Spirit, the teacher of your servant, when he commemorates that you made, in the beginning, heaven and earth, keeps silence about times, is silent about days. Surely the heaven of heavens, which you made in the beginning, is some intellectual creature. Although by no means coeternal with you, the Trinity, yet a participant in your eternity, it greatly restrains its own mutability on account of the sweetness of your most felicitous contemplation, and, without any lapse since it was made, by adhering to you it exceeds every rolling vicissitude of times.

ista vero informitas, terra invisibilis et incomposita, nec ipsa in diebus numerata est. ubi enim nulla species, nullus ordo, nec venit quicquam nec praeterit, et ubi hoc non fit, non sunt utique dies nec vicissitudo spatiorum temporalium.

But that formlessness, the invisible and uncomposed earth, was not itself numbered in the days. For where there is no form, no order, neither does anything come nor pass away; and where this does not happen, there are certainly no days nor vicissitude of temporal spaces.

12.10.10

o veritas, lumen cordis mei, non tenebrae meae loquantur mihi! defluxi ad ista et obscuratus sum, sed hinc, etiam hinc adamavi te. erravi et recordatus sum tui. audivi vocem tuam post me, ut redirem, et vix audivi propter tumultus impacatorum.

O Truth, light of my heart, let not my darknesses speak to me! I have flowed down to these things and was darkened, but from here, even from here, I have loved you. I wandered and I was mindful of you. I heard your voice behind me, that I might return, and I scarcely heard because of the tumults of the unpeaceable.

et nunc ecce redeo aestuans et anhelans ad fontem tuum. nemo me prohibeat: hunc bibam et hinc vivam. non ego vita mea sim: male vixi ex me. mors mihi fui: in te revivesco.

and now behold I return seething and gasping to your fount. let no one prohibit me: this will I drink and from here I will live. let me not be my own life: I have lived badly out of myself. I was death to myself: in you I revive.

tu me alloquere, tu mihi sermocinare: credidi libris tuis, et verba eorum arcana valde.

Address me, hold discourse with me: I have believed your books, and their words are very arcane.

12.11.11

iam dixisti mihi, domine, voce forti in aurem interiorem, quia tu aeternus es, solus habens immortalitatem, quoniam ex nulla specie motuve mutaris nec temporibus variatur voluntas tua, quia non est immortalis voluntas quae alia et alia est. hoc in conspectu tuo claret mihi et magis magisque clarescat, oro te, atque in ea manifestatione persistam sobrius sub alis tuis. item dixisti mihi, domine, voce forti in aurem interiorem, quod omnes naturas atque substantias quae non sunt quod tu es et tamen sunt, tu fecisti (et hoc solum a te non est, quod non est, motusque voluntatis a te, qui es, ad id quod minus est, quia talis motus delictum atque peccatum est), et quod nullius peccatum aut tibi nocet aut perturbat ordinem imperii tui vel in primo vel in imo.

Already you have said to me, Lord, with a strong voice into the inner ear, that you are eternal, alone having immortality, since by no species or motion are you changed, nor is your will varied by times, because that will is not immortal which is one thing and then another. This is clear to me in your sight, and may it shine clearer and clearer, I pray you, and may I persist in that manifestation sober under your wings. Likewise you have said to me, Lord, with a strong voice into the inner ear, that all natures and substances which are not what you are and yet are, you made (and this alone is not from you: what is not; and the movement of the will away from you, who are, toward that which is less, because such a movement is a fault and a sin), and that no one’s sin either harms you or disturbs the order of your empire either in the highest or in the lowest.

hoc in conspectu tuo claret mihi et magis magisque clarescat, oro te, atque in ea manifestatione persistam sobrius sub alis tuis.

this is clear to me in your sight, and may it shine forth more and more, I beg you, and in that manifestation may I persist, sober, under your wings.

12.11.12

item dixisti mihi voce forti in aurem interiorem, quod nec illa creatura tibi coaeterna est cuius voluptas tu solus es, teque perseverantissima castitate hauriens mutabilitatem suam nusquam et numquam exerit, et te sibi semper praesente, ad quem toto affectu se tenet, non habens futurum quod expectet nec in praeteritum traiciens quod meminerit, nulla vice variatur nec in tempora ulla distenditur. o beata, si qua ista est, inhaerendo beatitudini tuae, beata sempiterno inhabitatore te atque inlustratore suo! nec invenio quid libentius appellandum existimem 'caelum caeli domino' quam domum tuam contemplantem delectationem tuam sine ullo defectu egrediendi in aliud, mentem puram concordissime unam stabilimento pacis sanctorum spirituum,

likewise you said to me with a strong voice in the inner ear, that not even that creature is coeternal with you whose delight you alone are, and by drawing you in with most persevering chastity it puts forth its mutability nowhere and never, and with you always present to it, to whom with its whole affection it holds itself, having no future to expect nor casting into the past what it might remember, by no turn is it varied nor is it distended into any times. o blessed one, if such there is, by cleaving to your beatitude, blessed by its eternal indweller—you—and its illuminator! nor do I find what I should judge more gladly to be called ‘heaven of heaven to the Lord’ than your house, contemplating your delectation without any defect of going forth into another, a pure mind most concordantly one by the stabiliment of the peace of holy spirits,

12.11.13

intellegat anima, cuius peregrinatio longinqua facta est, si iam sitit tibi, si iam factae sunt ei lacrimae suae panis, dum dicitur ei per singulos dies, 'ubi est deus tuus?', si iam petit a te unam et hanc requirit, ut inhabitet in domo tua per omnes dies vitae suae? et quae vita eius nisi tu? et qui dies tui nisi aeternitas tua, sicut anni tui, qui non deficiunt, quia idem ipse es? hinc ergo intellegat anima quae potest quam longe super omnia tempora sis aeternus, quando tua domus, quae peregrinata non est, quamvis non sit tibi coaeterna, tamen indesinenter et indeficienter tibi cohaerendo nullam patitur vicissitudinem temporum. hoc in conspectu tuo claret mihi et magis magisque clarescat, oro te, atque in hac manifestatione persistam sobrius sub alis tuis.

Let the soul understand, whose peregrination has become far-distant, if now it thirsts for you, if now its own tears have been made for it its bread, while it is said to it through each and every day, ‘Where is your God?’, if now it asks from you one thing and this it seeks: that it may inhabit in your house all the days of its life. And what is its life if not you? And what are your days if not your eternity, as your years, which do not fail, because you are the same self? Hence, then, let the soul that can understand how far beyond all times you are eternal, since your house, which has not sojourned as a pilgrim, although it is not coeternal with you, nevertheless, by cohering to you unceasingly and unfailingly, suffers no vicissitude of times. This shines clear to me in your sight, and may it shine clearer and clearer, I beg you, and in this manifestation may I persist, sober, under your wings.

12.11.14

ecce nescio quid informe in istis mutationibus rerum extremarum atque infimarum, et quis dicet mihi, nisi quisquis per inania cordis sui cum suis phantasmatis vagatur et volvitur, quis nisi talis dicet mihi quod, deminuta atque consumpta omni specie, si sola remaneat informitas per quam de specie in speciem res mutabatur et vertebatur, possit exhibere vices temporum? omnino enim non potest, quia sine varietate motionum non sunt tempora, et nulla varietas ubi nulla species.

Behold, I know not what formlessness in these mutations of things at the extremes and the lowest; and who will say to me, unless it be someone who, through the empty spaces of his heart, wanders and revolves with his phantasms—who, unless such a one, will say to me that, with every form (species) diminished and consumed, if sheer formlessness alone were to remain, through which from form into form the thing was being changed and turned, it could exhibit the vicissitudes of times? Altogether indeed it cannot, for without a variety of motions there are no times, and there is no variety where there is no form (species).

12.12.15

quibus consideratis, quantum donas, deus meus, quantum me ad pulsandum excitas quantumque pulsanti aperis, duo reperio quae fecisti carentia temporibus, cum tibi neutrum coaeternum sit: unum quod ita formatum est ut sine ullo defectu contemplationis, sine ullo intervallo mutationis, quamvis mutabile tamen non mutatum, tua aeternitate atque incommutabilitate perfruatur; alterum quod ita informe erat ut ex qua forma in quam formam vel motionis vel stationis mutaretur, quo tempori subderetur, non haberet. sed hoc ut informe esset non reliquisti, quoniam fecisti ante omnem diem in principio caelum et terram, haec duo quae dicebam. 'terra autem invisibilis erat et incomposita, et tenebrae super abyssum': quibus verbis insinuatur informitas, ut gradatim excipiantur qui omnimodam speciei privationem nec tamen ad nihil perventionem cogitare non possunt, unde fieret alterum caelum et terra visibilis atque composita et aqua speciosa et quidquid deinceps in constitutione huius mundi non sine diebus factum commemoratur, quia talia sunt ut in eis agantur vicissitudines temporum propter ordinatas commutationes motionum atque formarum.

with these things considered, how much you grant, my God, how much you rouse me to knock, and how much you open to the one knocking, I find two things which you made lacking times, since neither is coeternal with you: one which is so formed that, without any defect of contemplation, without any interval of mutation, although mutable yet not mutated, it enjoys your eternity and immutability; the other which was so formless that it did not have that by which—from what form into what form, whether of motion or of station—it would be changed, to what time it would be subjected. but you did not leave this as formless, since you made before every day in the beginning heaven and earth, these two which I was saying. 'but the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness upon the abyss': by which words formlessness is intimated, so that step by step those may be accommodated who cannot think a total privation of species and yet not an arrival at nothing, whence there might be made the other—heaven and the visible and composed earth and the fair water—and whatever thereafter in the constitution of this world is commemorated to have been made not without days, because such things are that in them the vicissitudes of times are transacted on account of the ordered commutations of motions and forms.

12.13.16

hoc interim sentio, deus meus, cum audio loquentem scripturam tuam: 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram. terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum,' neque commemorantem quoto die feceris haec. sic interim sentio propter illud caelum caeli, caelum intellectuale, ubi est intellectus nosse simul, non ex parte, non in aenigmate, non per speculum, sed ex toto, in manifestatione, facie ad faciem; non modo hoc, modo illud, sed quod dictum est nosse simul sine ulla vicissitudine temporum, et propter invisibilem atque incompositam terram sine ulla vicissitudine temporum, quae solet habere modo hoc et modo illud, quia ubi nulla species, nusquam est hoc et illud.

This meanwhile I sense, my God, when I hear your Scripture speaking: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth. But the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was over the abyss,' and not mentioning on which day you made these. Thus meanwhile I sense on account of that heaven of heaven, the intellectual heaven, where it is for the intellect to know at once, not in part, not in enigma, not through a mirror, but from the whole, in manifestation, face to face; not now this, now that, but, as it has been said, to know at once without any vicissitude of times; and on account of the invisible and uncomposed earth without any vicissitude of times, which is wont to have now this and now that, because where there is no species (form), nowhere is this and that.

propter duo haec, primitus formatum et penitus informe, illud caelum, sed caelum caeli, hoc vero terram, sed terram invisibilem et incompositam, propter duo haec interim sentio sine commemoratione dierum dicere scripturam tuam, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram.' statim quippe subiecit quam terram dixerit, et quod secundo die commemoratur factum firmamentum et vocatum caelum, insinuat de quo caelo prius sine diebus sermo locutus sit.

on account of these two things, the first-formed and the utterly formless—namely that heaven, but the heaven of heaven, and this, the earth, but an invisible and uncomposed earth—on account of these two things for the time being I understand your scripture to say, without any commemoration of days, ‘in the beginning God made heaven and earth.’ For immediately it subjoined what earth it had meant; and because on the second day the firmament is recorded as made and called heaven, it intimates of which heaven the discourse had previously spoken without days.

12.14.17

mira profunditas eloquiorum tuorum, quorum ecce ante nos superficies blandiens parvulis, sed mira profunditas, deus meus, mira profunditas! horror est intendere in eam, horror honoris et tremor amoris. odi hostes eius vehementer: o si occidas eos de gladio bis acuto, et non sint hostes eius!

wondrous profundity of your utterances, whose surface, behold, lies before us, flattering the little ones; but wondrous profundity, my God, wondrous profundity! it is a horror to press into it, a horror of honor and a tremor of love. I hate its enemies vehemently: O if you would slay them with the twice-sharp sword, and let them not be its enemies!

sic enim amo eos occidi sibi, ut vivant tibi. ecce autem alii, non reprehensores sed laudatores libri Geneseos: 'non' inquiunt 'hoc voluit in his verbis intellegi spiritus dei, qui per Moysen famulum eius ista conscripsit, non hoc voluit intellegi quod tu dicis, sed aliud quod nos dicimus.' quibus ego, te arbitro, deus omnium nostrum, ita respondeo.

for thus indeed I love them to be slain to themselves, that they may live to you. behold, however, others, not reprovers but praisers of the book of Genesis: 'not,' they say, 'did the Spirit of God, who through Moses his servant wrote down these things, will this to be understood in these words; not did he will to be understood what you say, but something else which we say.' to whom I, with you as arbiter, O God of us all, thus reply.

12.15.18

num dicetis falsa esse, quae mihi veritas voce forti in aurem interiorem dicit de vera aeternitate creatoris, quod nequaquam eius substantia per tempora varietur nec eius voluntas extra eius substantiam sit? unde non eum modo velle hoc modo velle illud, sed semel et simul et semper velle omnia quae vult, non iterum et iterum, neque nunc ista nunc illa, nec velle postea quod nolebat aut nolle quod volebat prius, quia talis voluntas mutabilis est et omne mutabile aeternum non est: deus autem noster aeternus est. item quod mihi dicit in aurem interiorem, expectatio rerum venturarum fit contuitus, cum venerint, idemque contuitus fit memoria, cum praeterierint.

Will you say that the things are false which Truth, with a strong voice, says into my inner ear about the true eternity of the Creator—that in no way is his substance varied through times, nor is his will outside his substance? Whence he does not now will this, now will that, but once and at once and always wills all the things that he wills, not again and again, nor now these, now those, nor to will afterward what he did not will, or not to will what previously he willed; because such a will is mutable, and every mutable thing is not eternal: but our God is eternal. Likewise what it says to me in the inner ear: the expectation of things to come becomes a vision when they have come, and the same vision becomes memory when they have passed.

omnis porro intentio quae ita variatur mutabilis est, et omne mutabile aeternum non est: deus autem noster aeternus est. haec conligo atque coniungo, et invenio deum meum, deum aeternum, non aliqua nova voluntate condidisse creaturam nec scientiam eius transitorium aliquid pati.

Moreover, every intention which is thus varied is mutable, and everything mutable is not eternal: but our God is eternal. These things I collect and conjoin, and I find my God, the eternal God, not to have found the creation by any new will, nor does his knowledge undergo anything transitory.

12.15.19

quid ergo dicetis, contradictores? an falsa sunt ista? 'non' inquiunt.

What then will you say, contradictors? Are those things false? 'No,' they say.

quid illud? num falsum est omnem naturam formatam materiamve formabilem non esse nisi ab illo qui summe bonus est quia summe est? 'neque hoc negamus' inquiunt.

What of that? Is it false that every formed nature or formable matter exists only from him who is supremely good because he supremely is? 'Nor do we deny this,' they say.

quid igitur? an illud negatis, sublimem quandam esse creaturam tam casto amore cohaerentem deo vero et vere aeterno ut, quamvis ei coaeterna non sit, in nullam tamen temporum varietatem et vicissitudinem ab illo se resolvat et defluat, sed in eius solius veracissima contemplatione requiescat, quoniam tu, deus, diligenti te, quantum praecipis, ostendis ei te et sufficis ei, et ideo non declinat a te nec ad se? haec est domus dei non terrena neque ulla caelesti mole corporea, sed spiritalis et particeps aeternitatis tuae, quia sine labe in aeternum. statuisti enim eam in saeculum et in saeculum saeculi; praeceptum posuisti et non praeteribit.

what then? Or do you deny this: that there is a certain sublime creature, cohering with so chaste a love to the true and truly eternal God that, although it is not coeternal with him, yet into no variety and vicissitude of times does it loosen itself from him and flow away, but rests in the most veracious contemplation of him alone, since you, God, to the one loving you, as much as you enjoin, show yourself to him and suffice for him, and therefore it does not turn aside from you nor toward itself? This is the house of God, not earthly nor of any heavenly corporeal mass, but spiritual and a participant in your eternity, because without stain forever. For you have established it into the age and into the age of the age; you have set a precept, and it will not pass away.

nec tamen tibi coaeterna, quoniam non sine initio, facta est enim.

and yet not coeternal with you, since it is not without a beginning, for it was made.

12.15.20

nam etsi non invenimus tempus ante illam -- prior quippe omnium creata est sapientia, nec utique illa sapientia tibi, deus noster, patri suo, plane coaeterna et aequalis et per quam creata sunt omnia et in quo principio fecisti caelum et terram, sed profecto sapientia quae creata est, intellectualis natura scilicet, quae contemplatione luminis lumen est; dicitur enim et ipsa, quamvis creata, sapientia, sed quantum interest inter lumen quod inluminat et quod inluminatur, tantum inter sapientiam quae creat et istam quae creata est, sicut inter iustitiam iustificantem et iustitiam quae iustificatione facta est (nam et nos dicti sumus iustitia tua; ait enim quidam servus tuus, 'ut nos simus iustitia dei in ipso'). ergo quia prior omnium creata est quaedam sapientia quae creata est, mens rationalis et intellectualis castae civitatis tuae, matris nostrae, quae sursum est et libera est et aeterna in caelis (quibus caelis, nisi qui te laudant caeli caelorum, quia hoc est et caelum caeli domino?), etsi non invenimus tempus ante illam, quia et creaturam temporis antecedit, quae prior omnium creata est, ante illam tamen est ipsius creatoris aeternitas, a quo facta sumpsit exordium, quamvis non temporis, quia nondum erat tempus, ipsius tamen conditionis suae.

for even if we do not find time before her -- for Wisdom was created prior to all -- not, to be sure, that Wisdom which is to you, our God, to his Father, plainly coeternal and equal and through whom all things were created and in whom “in the beginning” you made heaven and earth, but assuredly the wisdom which is created, namely an intellectual nature, which by contemplation of the Light is light; for even she herself, although created, is called wisdom; but as much as there is a difference between the light which illuminates and that which is illuminated, so much between the Wisdom which creates and this which has been created, just as between righteousness justifying and the righteousness which has been made by justification (for we too have been called your righteousness; for a certain servant of yours says, 'that we may be the righteousness of God in him'). therefore, because earlier than all there was created a certain wisdom which is created, the rational and intellectual mind of your chaste city, our mother, which is above and is free and eternal in the heavens (what heavens, unless the heavens of heavens that praise you, since this is also the heaven of the heaven for the Lord?), although we do not find time before her, because she too precedes the creature of time, she who was created prior to all, yet before her is the eternity of her own Creator, from whom, having been made, she took her beginning, though not of time, because time did not yet exist, yet of her own condition.

12.15.21

unde ita est abs te, deo nostro, ut aliud sit plane quam tu et non idipsum. etsi non solum ante illam sed nec in illa invenimus tempus, quia est idonea faciem tuam semper videre nec uspiam deflectitur ab ea (quo fit ut nulla mutatione varietur). inest ei tamen ipsa mutabilitas, unde tenebresceret et frigesceret nisi amore grandi tibi cohaerens tamquam semper meridies luceret et ferveret ex te. o domus luminosa et speciosa, dilexi decorem tuum et locum habitationis gloriae domini mei, fabricatoris et possessoris tui! tibi suspiret peregrinatio mea, et dico ei qui fecit te ut possideat et me in te, quia fecit et me. erravi sicut ovis perdita, sed in umeris pastoris mei, structoris tui, spero me reportari tibi.

whence it is thus from you, our God, that it is plainly other than you and not the selfsame. and although we find not only no time before it but not even in it, because it is apt to see your face always and is nowhere turned aside from it (whence it comes about that by no change is it varied). yet there inheres in it mutability itself, whence it would grow dark and grow cold unless, cleaving to you with great love, as though it were always midday it shone and was fervent from you. o luminous and beautiful house, I have loved your comeliness and the place of the habitation of the glory of my Lord, your maker and possessor! to you let my pilgrimage sigh, and I say to him who made you that he may possess both you and me in you, because he also made me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep, but on the shoulders of my shepherd, your builder, I hope to be carried back to you.

12.15.22

quid dicitis mihi, quos alloquebar contradictores, qui tamen et Moysen pium famulum dei et libros eius oracula sancti spiritus creditis? estne ista domus dei, non quidem deo coaeterna sed tamen secundum modum suum aeterna in caelis, ubi vices temporum frustra quaeritis, quia non invenitis? supergreditur enim omnem distentionem et omne spatium aetatis volubile, cui semper inhaerere deo bonum est.

What do you say to me, you contradicters whom I was addressing, you who nevertheless believe both Moses to be the pious servant of God and his books to be the oracles of the Holy Spirit? Is that the house of God, not indeed coeternal with God but yet, according to its own mode, eternal in the heavens, where you seek in vain the vicissitudes of times, because you do not find them? For it overpasses every distention and every span of changeful time, in which it is always good to cling to God.

'est' inquiunt. quid igitur ex his quae clamavit cor meum ad deum meum, cum audiret interius vocem laudis eius, quid tandem falsum esse contenditis? an quia erat informis materies, ubi propter nullam formam nullus ordo erat?

'it is,' they say. What then, out of those things which my heart cried out to my God, when it heard inwardly the voice of his praise, what, at length, do you contend to be false? Or is it because there was formless matter, where, on account of no form, there was no order?

ubi autem nullus ordo erat, nulla esse vicissitudo temporum poterat; et tamen hoc paene nihil, in quantum non omnino nihil erat, ab illo utique erat a quo est quidquid est, quod utcumque aliquid est. 'hoc quoque' aiunt 'non negamus.'

but where no order was, no vicissitude of times could be; and yet this almost-nothing, inasmuch as it was not altogether nothing, was assuredly from him from whom is whatever is, which is somehow something. 'this too,' they say, 'we do not deny.'

12.16.23

cum his enim volo coram te aliquid conloqui, deus meus, qui haec omnia, quae intus in mente mea non tacet veritas tua, vera esse concedunt. nam qui haec negant, latrent quantum volunt et obstrepant sibi: persuadere conabor ut quiescant et viam praebeant ad se verbo tuo. quod si noluerint et reppulerint me, obsecro, deus meus, ne tu sileas a me. tu loquere in corde meo veraciter; solus enim sic loqueris.

for with these I wish to converse before you, my God—those who concede that all these things which your Truth, which does not keep silence within my mind, declares, are true. for those who deny these things, let them bark as much as they will and make a din for themselves: I shall try to persuade them to be quiet and to afford your Word a way to reach them. but if they are unwilling and drive me away, I beseech you, my God, do not be silent to me. do you speak in my heart veraciously; for you alone speak thus.

et dimittam eos foris sufflantes in pulverem et excitantes terram in oculos suos, et intrem in cubile meum et cantem tibi amatoria, gemens inenarrabiles gemitus in peregrinatione mea et recordans Hierusalem extento in eam sursum corde, Hierusalem patriam meam, Hierusalem matrem meam, teque super eam regnatorem, inlustratorem, patrem, tutorem, maritum, castas et fortes delicias et solidum gaudium et omnia bona ineffabilia, simul omnia, quia unum summum et verum bonum. et non avertar donec in eius pacem, matris carissimae, ubi sunt primitiae spiritus mei, unde ista mihi certa sunt, conligas totum quod sum a dispersione et deformitate hac et conformes atque confirmes in aeternum, deus meus, misericordia mea. cum his autem qui cuncta illa quae vera sunt falsa esse non dicunt, honorantes et in culmine sequendae auctoritatis nobiscum constituentes illam per sanctum Moysen editam sanctam scripturam tuam, et tamen nobis aliquid contradicunt, ita loquor.

and I will dismiss them outside, puffing into the dust and stirring up earth into their own eyes, and I will enter into my bedchamber and sing to you love-songs, groaning inexpressible groans in my pilgrimage and remembering Jerusalem with my heart stretched upward toward it, Jerusalem my fatherland, Jerusalem my mother, and you over it as ruler, illuminator, father, guardian, husband, chaste and strong delights and solid joy and all ineffable goods, all together, since the one highest and true good. and I will not turn aside until, into its peace, of my dearest mother, where are the firstfruits of my spirit, whence these things are certain for me, you gather together the whole that I am from this dispersion and deformity and conform and confirm me unto eternity, my God, my mercy. but with those who do not say that all those things which are true are false, honoring and, with us, establishing on the pinnacle of authority-to-be-followed that holy Scripture of yours published through holy Moses, and yet who contradict us in something, thus I speak.

tu esto, deus noster, arbiter inter confessiones meas et contradictiones eorum.

Be thou, our God, the arbiter between my confessions and their contradictions.

12.17.24

dicunt enim, 'quamvis vera sint haec, non ea tamen duo Moyses intuebatur, cum revelante spiritu diceret, ''in principio fecit deus caelum et terram.'' non caeli nomine spiritalem vel intellectualem illam creaturam semper faciem dei contemplantem significavit, nec terrae nomine informem materiam.' quid igitur? 'quod nos dicimus,' inquiunt, 'hoc ille vir sensit, hoc verbis istis elocutus est.' quid illud est? 'nomine' aiunt 'caeli et terrae totum istum visibilem mundum prius universaliter et breviter significare voluit, ut postea digereret dierum enumeratione quasi articulatim universa quae sancto spiritui placuit sic enuntiare.

for they say, 'although these things be true, yet Moses was not looking upon those two when, with the spirit revealing, he said, ''in the beginning God made heaven and earth.'' By the name of heaven he did not signify that spiritual or intellectual creature ever contemplating the face of God, nor by the name of earth the formless matter.' What then? 'What we say,' they say, 'this that man perceived, this he uttered in those words.' And what is that? 'By the "name" of heaven and earth he wished first universally and briefly to signify this whole visible world, so that afterward he might set it out by the enumeration of the days, as it were articulately, all the things which it pleased the Holy Spirit thus to enunciate.'

tales quippe homines erant rudis ille atque carnalis populus cui loquebatur, ut eis opera dei non nisi sola visibilia commendanda iudicaret.' terram vero invisibilem et incompositam tenebrosamque abyssum, unde consequenter ostenditur per illos dies facta atque disposita esse cuncta ista visibilia quae nota sunt omnibus, non incongruenter informem istam materiam intellegendam esse consentiunt.

'For such men indeed was that rude and carnal people to whom he was speaking, such that he judged that for them the works of God—only the visible ones—were to be commended.' 'But the earth invisible and uncomposed and the tenebrous abyss, whence it is consequently shown that through those days all these visible things which are known to all were made and disposed, they agree is to be understood, not incongruously, as that formless matter.'

12.17.25

quid si dicat alius eandem informitatem confusionemque materiae caeli et terrae nomine prius insinuatam, quod ex ea mundus iste visibilis cum omnibus naturis quae in eo manifestissime apparent, qui caeli et terrae nomine saepe appellari solet, conditus atque perfectus est? quid si dicat et alius caelum et terram quidem invisibilem visibilemque naturam non indecenter appellatam, ac per hoc universam creaturam quam fecit in sapientia, id est in principio, deus, huiuscemodi duobus vocabulis esse comprehensam; verum tamen quia non de ipsa substantia dei sed ex nihilo cuncta facta sunt, quia non sunt idipsum quod deus, et inest quaedam mutabilitas omnibus, sive maneant, sicut aeterna domus dei, sive mutentur, sicut anima hominis et corpus, communem omnium rerum invisibilium visibiliumque materiem adhuc informem, sed certe formabilem, unde fieret caelum et terra, id est invisibilis atque visibilis iam utraque formata creatura, his nominibus enuntiatam, quibus appellaretur terra invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae super abyssum, ea distinctione ut terra invisibilis et incomposita intellegatur materies corporalis ante qualitatem formae, tenebrae autem super abyssum spiritalis materies ante cohibitionem quasi fluentis immoderationis et ante inluminationem sapientiae?

What if someone else should say that the same formlessness and confusion of matter was previously insinuated under the name “heaven and earth,” because from it this visible world, with all the natures which most manifestly appear in it—what is often wont to be called by the name “heaven and earth”—was founded and perfected? What if yet another should say that “heaven and earth” has not inappropriately been called the invisible and the visible nature, and through this that the universal creature which God made in wisdom, that is, in the beginning, is encompassed by two such terms; nevertheless, because all things were made not from the very substance of God but out of nothing, because they are not the very same as God, and a certain mutability is inherent in all—whether they remain, like the eternal house of God, or are changed, like the soul of man and the body—the common matter of all things invisible and visible, as yet formless but certainly formable, whence heaven and earth would be made, that is, the invisible and the visible creature, both already formed, was expressed by these names, by which it would be called “earth invisible and uncomposed,” and “darkness over the abyss,” with this distinction: that “earth invisible and uncomposed” be understood as bodily matter before the quality of form, but “darkness over the abyss” as spiritual matter before the cohibition, as it were, of flowing immoderation and before the illumination of wisdom?

12.17.26

est adhuc quod dicat, si quis alius velit, non scilicet iam perfectas atque formatas invisibiles visibilesque naturas caeli et terrae nomine significari, cum legitur, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,' sed ipsam adhuc informem inchoationem rerum formabilem creabilemque materiam his nominibus appellatam, quod in ea iam essent ista confusa, nondum qualitatibus formisque distincta, quae nunc iam digesta suis ordinibus vocantur caelum et terra, illa spiritalis, haec corporalis creatura.

there is still something to say, if some other person should wish: namely, that not, to be sure, the already perfected and formed invisible and visible natures are signified by the name of heaven and earth, when it is read, 'in the beginning God made heaven and earth,' but rather that the as-yet formless inchoation of things—the formable and creatable matter—is called by these names, because in it these things already existed in a confused state, not yet distinguished by qualities and forms, which things now, already digested into their proper orders, are called heaven and earth—the former a spiritual creation, the latter a corporeal creation.

12.18.27

quibus omnibus auditis et consideratis, nolo verbis contendere; ad nihil enim utile est nisi ad subversionem audientium. ad aedificationem autem bona est lex, si quis ea legitime utatur, quia finis eius est caritas de corde puro et conscientia bona et fide non ficta; et novi magister noster in quibus duobus praeceptis totam legem prophetasque suspenderit. quae mihi ardenter confitenti, deus meus, lumen oculorum meorum in occulto, quid mihi obest, cum diversa in his verbis intellegi possint, quae tamen vera sint?

with all these things heard and considered, I do not wish to contend with words; for it is useful for nothing except to the subversion of the hearers. but for edification the law is good, if anyone use it legitimately, because its end is charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith not feigned; and I know that our Teacher has hung the whole Law and the Prophets upon those two precepts. which things as I ardently confess, my God, the light of my eyes in the secret place, what does it harm me, since different things can be understood in these words, which nevertheless are true?

quid, inquam, mihi obest, si aliud ego sensero quam sensit alius eum sensisse qui scripsit? omnes quidem qui legimus nitimur hoc indagare atque comprehendere, quod voluit ille quem legimus, et cum eum veridicum credimus, nihil quod falsum esse vel novimus vel putamus audemus eum existimare dixisse. dum ergo quisque conatur id sentire in scripturis sanctis quod in eis sensit ille qui scripsit, quid mali est si hoc sentiat quod tu, lux omnium veridicarum mentium, ostendis verum esse, etiamsi non hoc sensit ille quem legit, cum et ille verum nec tamen hoc senserit?

what, I say, harms me, if I perceive something other than another perceived the writer to have perceived? we all indeed who read strive to indagate and comprehend what he whom we read willed, and since we believe him veridical, we do not dare to reckon that he said anything which we either know or suppose to be false. while therefore each person strives to feel in the holy scriptures that which he who wrote felt in them, what harm is there if he senses that which you, light of all veridical minds, show to be true, even if he whom he reads did not sense this, since he too sensed something true, yet not this?

12.19.28

verum est enim, domine, fecisse te caelum et terram. et verum est esse principium sapientiam tuam, in qua fecisti omnia. item verum est quod mundus iste visibilis habet magnas partes suas caelum et terram, brevi complexione factarum omnium conditarumque naturarum.

for it is true, Lord, that you have made heaven and earth. and it is true that the beginning is your wisdom, in which you made all things. likewise it is true that this visible world has its great parts, heaven and earth, a brief compendium of all natures that have been made and founded.

et verum est quod omne mutabile insinuat notitiae nostrae quandam informitatem, qua formam capit vel qua mutatur et vertitur. verum est nulla tempora perpeti quod ita cohaeret formae incommutabili ut, quamvis sit mutabile, non mutetur. verum est informitatem, quae prope nihil est, vices temporum habere non posse.

and it is true that every mutable thing insinuates to our knowledge a certain informity, by which it takes form or by which it is changed and turned. it is true that that which so coheres with the incommutable form that, although it is mutable, it is not changed, undergoes no times. it is true that informity, which is almost nothing, cannot have the vicissitudes of times.

verum est quod, unde fit aliquid, potest quodam genere locutionis habere iam nomen eius rei quae inde fit: unde potuit vocari caelum et terra quaelibet informitas unde factum est caelum et terra. verum est omnium formatorum nihil esse informi vicinius quam terram et abyssum. verum est quod non solum creatum atque formatum sed etiam quidquid creabile atque formabile est tu fecisti, ex quo sunt omnia.

it is true that that from which something is made can, in a certain kind of locution, already bear the name of the thing that is made from it: whence any formlessness whatever, from which heaven and earth were made, could be called “heaven and earth.” it is true that, of all things formed, nothing is nearer to the formless than earth and the abyss. it is true that not only the created and the formed, but also whatever is creatable and formable, you made—you, from whom are all things.

verum est omne quod ex informi formatur prius esse informe, deinde formatum.

It is true that everything which is formed out of the formless is first formless, then formed.

12.20.29

ex his omnibus veris de quibus non dubitant, quorum interiori oculo talia videre donasti et qui Moysen, famulum tuum, in spiritu veritatis locutum esse immobiliter credunt, ex his ergo omnibus aliud sibi tollit qui dicit, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,' id est in verbo suo sibi coaeterno fecit deus intellegibilem atque sensibilem vel spiritalem corporalemque creaturam; aliud qui dicit, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,' id est in verbo suo sibi coaeterno fecit deus universam istam molem corporei mundi huius cum omnibus quas continet manifestis notisque naturis; aliud qui dicit, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,' id est in verbo suo sibi coaeterno fecit informem materiam creaturae spiritalis et corporalis; aliud qui dicit, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,' id est in verbo suo sibi coaeterno fecit deus informem materiam creaturae corporalis, ubi confusum adhuc erat caelum et terra, quae nunc iam distincta atque formata in istius mundi mole sentimus; aliud qui dicit, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,' id est in ipso exordio faciendi atque operandi fecit deus informem materiam confuse habentem caelum et terram, unde formata nunc eminent et apparent cum omnibus quae in eis sunt.

from all these truths, about which they do not doubt, to whose inner eye you have granted to see such things, and who immovably believe that Moses, your servant, spoke in the spirit of truth, from all these, therefore, one takes for himself something different who says, ‘in the beginning god made heaven and earth,’ that is, in his word coeternal with himself God made the intelligible and the sensible, or the spiritual and the corporeal, creature; another, who says, ‘in the beginning god made heaven and earth,’ that is, in his word coeternal with himself God made this whole mass of this corporeal world with all the manifest and well-known natures which it contains; another, who says, ‘in the beginning god made heaven and earth,’ that is, in his word coeternal with himself he made the formless matter of the spiritual and the corporeal creature; another, who says, ‘in the beginning god made heaven and earth,’ that is, in his word coeternal with himself God made the formless matter of the corporeal creature, where heaven and earth were still confused, which we now already perceive as distinct and formed in the mass of this world; another, who says, ‘in the beginning god made heaven and earth,’ that is, at the very exordium of making and working God made the formless matter holding heaven and earth in confusion, whence, formed, they now stand out and appear with all the things that are in them.

12.21.30

item quod attinet ad intellectum verborum sequentium, ex illis omnibus veris aliud sibi tollit qui dicit, 'terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum,' id est corporale illud quod fecit deus adhuc materies erat corporearum rerum informis, sine ordine, sine luce; aliud qui dicit, 'terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum,' id est hoc totum quod caelum et terra appellatum est adhuc informis et tenebrosa materies erat, unde fieret caelum corporeum et terra corporea cum omnibus quae in eis sunt corporeis sensibus nota; aliud qui dicit, 'terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum,' id est hoc totum quod caelum et terra appellatum est adhuc informis et tenebrosa materies erat, unde fieret caelum intelligibile (quod alibi dicitur caelum caeli) et terra, scilicet omnis natura corporea, sub quo nomine intellegatur etiam hoc caelum corporeum, id est unde fieret omnis invisibilis visibilisque creatura; aliud qui dicit, 'terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum,' non illam informitatem nomine caeli et terrae scriptura appellavit, sed iam erat, inquit, ipsa informitas quam terram invisibilem et incompositam tenebrosamque abyssum nominavit, de qua caelum et terram deum fecisse praedixerat, spiritalem scilicet corporalemque creaturam; aliud qui dicit, 'terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum,' id est informitas quaedam iam materies erat unde caelum et terram deum fecisse scriptura praedixit, totam scilicet corpoream mundi molem in duas maximas partes superiorem atque inferiorem distributam cum omnibus quae in eis sunt usitatis notisque creaturis.

likewise, as concerns the understanding of the following words, from all those truths one thing is taken up by the one who says, 'but the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was over the abyss,' that is: that bodily thing which God made was still the matter of bodily things, formless, without order, without light; another by the one who says, 'but the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was over the abyss,' that is: this whole thing which was called heaven and earth was still formless and dark matter, whence a corporeal heaven and a corporeal earth would be made, with all the things in them known to bodily senses; another by the one who says, 'but the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was over the abyss,' that is: this whole thing which was called heaven and earth was still formless and dark matter, whence an intelligible heaven (which elsewhere is called the heaven of heaven) and an earth would be made, namely every corporeal nature, under which name there is understood this corporeal heaven also, that is, whence every invisible and visible creature would be made; another by the one who says, 'but the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was over the abyss,' not that formlessness did Scripture call by the name of heaven and earth, but already, he says, there was the formlessness itself which he named an invisible and uncomposed earth and a dark abyss, of which he had foretold that God made heaven and earth, namely the spiritual and the corporeal creature; another by the one who says, 'but the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was over the abyss,' that is: a certain formlessness was already matter from which Scripture had foretold that God made heaven and earth, namely the whole corporeal mass of the world distributed into two greatest parts, the upper and the lower, with all the customary and well-known creatures that are in them.

12.22.31

cum enim duabus istis extremis sententiis resistere quisquam ita temptaverit: 'si non vultis hanc informitatem materiae caeli et terrae nomine appellatam videri, erat ergo aliquid quod non fecerat deus, unde caelum et terram faceret; neque enim scriptura narravit quod istam materiem deus fecerit, nisi intellegamus eam caeli et terrae aut solius terrae vocabulo significatam cum diceretur, ''in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,'' ut id quod sequitur, ''terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita,'' quamvis informem materiam sic placuerit appellare, non tamen intellegamus nisi eam quam fecit deus in eo quod praescriptum est: ''fecit caelum et terram,''' respondebunt assertores duarum istarum sententiarum quas extremas posuimus aut illius aut illius, cum haec audierint, et dicent, 'informem quidem istam materiam non negamus a deo factam, deo, a quo sunt omnia bona valde, quia, sicut dicimus amplius bonum esse quod creatum atque formatum est, ita fatemur minus bonum esse quod factum est creabile atque formabile, sed tamen bonum: non autem commemorasse scripturam quod hanc informitatem fecerit deus, sicut alia multa non commemoravit, ut cherubim et seraphim, et quae apostolus distincte ait, ''sedes, dominationes, principatus, potestates,'' quae tamen omnia deum fecisse manifestum est. aut si eo quod dictum est, ''fecit caelum et terram,'' comprehensa sunt omnia, quid de aquis dicimus super quas ferebatur spiritus dei? si enim terra nominata simul intelleguntur, quomodo iam terrae nomine materies informis accipitur, quando tam speciosas aquas videmus?

For when anyone has thus tried to resist those two extreme opinions: 'if you do not wish this informity of matter to seem to be called by the name of heaven and earth, then there was, therefore, something which God had not made, from which he might make heaven and earth; for scripture has not narrated that God made this matter, unless we understand it to be signified by the term “heaven and earth” or of “earth alone” when it was said, ''In the beginning God made heaven and earth,'' so that what follows, ''but the earth was invisible and uncomposed,'' although it has pleased men to call the formless matter thus, yet we should understand nothing other than that which God made in what has been set down before: ''he made heaven and earth,''' the asserters of those two opinions which we placed as the extremes, the one or the other, when they hear these things, will answer and say, 'we do not deny that this formless matter was made by God—by God, from whom all things are very good—for just as we say that what has been created and formed is a greater good, so we confess that what has been made creatable and formable is a lesser good, yet still a good: but that scripture did not commemorate that God made this informity, just as it did not commemorate many other things, such as the cherubim and seraphim, and those which the Apostle distinctly says, ''thrones, dominations, principalities, powers,'' all of which, nevertheless, it is manifest that God made. Or if by that which was said, ''he made heaven and earth,'' all things are comprehended, what do we say about the waters over which the Spirit of God was borne? For if, when “earth” is named, they are understood together, how is the formless matter now taken under the name of “earth,” when we see waters so fair?'

aut si ita accipitur, cur ex eadem informitate scriptum est factum firmamentum et vocatum caelum neque scriptum est factas esse aquas? non enim adhuc informes sunt et invisae quas ita decora specie fluere cernimus. aut si tunc acceperunt istam speciem cum dixit deus, ''congregetur aqua, quae est sub firmamento,'' ut congregatio sit ipsa formatio, quid respondebitur de aquis quae super firmamentum sunt, quia neque informes tam honorabilem sedem accipere meruissent nec scriptum est qua voce formatae sint?

Or if it is taken thus, why is it written that from the same informity the firmament was made and called Heaven, and yet it is not written that the waters were made? For they are not still formless and unseen, which we behold flowing with so decorous an appearance. Or if then they received that form when God said, "Let the water which is under the firmament be gathered together," so that the congregation be the formation itself, what will be answered concerning the waters which are above the firmament, since neither, being formless, would they have merited to receive so honorable a seat, nor is it written by what voice they were formed?

unde si aliquid Genesis tacuit deum fecisse, quod tamen deum fecisse nec sana fides nec certus ambigit intellectus, nec ideo ulla sobria doctrina dicere audebit istas aquas coaeternas deo, quia in libro Geneseos commemoratas quidem audimus, ubi autem factae sint non invenimus, cur non informem quoque illam materiam, quam scriptura haec terram invisibilem et incompositam tenebrosamque abyssum appellat, docente veritate intellegamus ex deo factam esse de nihilo ideoque illi non esse coaeternam, quamvis ubi facta sit omiserit enuntiare ista narratio?'

whence, if Genesis has kept silence that God made something which nevertheless neither sound faith nor a sure understanding doubts that God made, no sober doctrine will therefore dare to say that those waters are coeternal with God, because in the Book of Genesis we indeed hear them mentioned, but we do not find where they were made. Why should we not also understand that that formless matter, which this Scripture calls the earth invisible and uncomposed and the dark abyss, with Truth teaching, was made by God from nothing and therefore is not coeternal with Him, although this narrative has omitted to declare where it was made?'

12.23.32

his ergo auditis atque perspectis pro captu infirmitatis meae, quam tibi confiteor scienti deo meo, duo video dissensionum genera oboriri posse cum aliquid a nuntiis veracibus per signa enuntiatur: unum, si de veritate rerum, alterum, si de ipsius qui enuntiat voluntate dissensio est. aliter enim quaerimus de creaturae conditione quid verum sit, aliter autem quid in his verbis Moyses, egregius domesticus fidei tuae, intellegere lectorem auditoremque voluerit. in illo primo genere discedant a me omnes qui ea quae falsa sunt se scire arbitrantur; in hoc item altero discedant a me omnes qui ea quae falsa sunt Moysen dixisse arbitrantur.

coniungar autem illis, domine, in te et delecter cum eis in te qui veritate tua pascuntur in latitudine caritatis, et accedamus simul ad verba libri tui et quaeramus in eis vountatem tuam per voluntatem famuli tui, cuius calamo dispensasti ea.

but let me be joined to them, O Lord, in you, and be delighted with them in you, who are fed by your truth in the breadth of charity; and let us together approach the words of your book and seek in them your will through the will of your servant, by whose pen you dispensed them.

12.24.33

sed quis nostrum sic invenit eam inter tam multa vera quae in illis verbis aliter atque aliter intellectis occurrunt quaerentibus, ut tam fidenter dicat hoc sensisse Moysen atque hoc in illa narratione voluisse intellegi, quam fidenter dicit hoc verum esse, sive ille hoc senserit sive aliud? ecce enim, deus meus, ego servus tuus, qui vovi tibi sacrificium confessionis in his litteris et oro ut ex misericordia tua reddam tibi vota mea, ecce ego quam fidenter dico in tuo verbo incommutabili omnia te fecisse, invisibilia et visibilia. numquid tam fidenter dico non aliud quam hoc attendisse Moysen, cum scriberet, 'in principio fecit deus caelum et terram,' quia non, sicut in tua veritate hoc certum video, ita in eius mente video id eum cogitasse cum haec scriberet?

But which of us has so found it among so many truths which, in those words being understood now in one way, now in another, occur to seekers, that he would say with such confidence that Moses felt this and wished this to be understood in that narration, as confidently as he says that this is true, whether he sensed this or something else? Behold, my God, I your servant, who have vowed to you the sacrifice of confession in these letters and pray that out of your mercy I may pay my vows to you—behold how confidently I say that in your immutable Word you have made all things, the invisible and the visible. Do I say as confidently that Moses attended to nothing other than this, when he wrote, ‘in the beginning God made heaven and earth,’ seeing that, not as I see this for certain in your Truth, do I likewise see in his mind that he was thinking this when he wrote these things?

potuit enim cogitare, 'in ipso faciendi exordio,' cum diceret: 'in principio'; potuit et caelum et terram hoc loco nullam iam formatam perfectamque naturam sive spiritalem sive corporalem, sed utramque inchoatam et adhuc informem velle intellegi. video quippe vere potuisse dici quidquid horum diceretur, sed quid horum in his verbis ille cogitaverit, non ita video, quamvis sive aliquid horum sive quid aliud quod a me commemoratum non est tantus vir ille mente conspexerit, cum haec verba promeret, verum eum vidisse apteque id enuntiavisse non dubitem.

for he could indeed think, 'in the very exordium of making,' when he said: 'in the beginning'; he could also wish 'heaven and earth' in this place to be understood as no nature already formed and perfected, whether spiritual or corporeal, but both inchoate and as yet unformed. For I truly see that whatever of these should be said could have been said; but which of these he thought in these words, that I do not so see—although whether that great man perceived by his mind something of these, or something else which has not been recalled by me, when he brought forth these words, I do not doubt that he saw the truth and aptly enunciated it.

12.25.34

> nemo iam mihi molestus sit dicendo mihi, 'non hoc sensit Moyses quod tu dicis, sed hoc sensit quod ego dico.' si enim mihi diceret, 'unde scis hoc sensisse Moysen, quod de his verbis eius eloqueris?', aequo animo ferre deberem et responderem fortasse quae superius respondi vel aliquanto uberius, si esset durior. cum vero dicit, 'non hoc ille sensit quod tu dicis, sed quod ego dico,' neque tamen negat quod uterque nostrum dicit, utrumque verum esse, o vita pauperum, deus meus, in cuius sinu non est contradictio, plue mihi mitigationes in cor, ut patienter tales feram. qui non mihi hoc dicunt, quia divini sunt et in corde famuli tui viderunt quod dicunt, sed quia superbi sunt nec noverunt Moysi sententiam sed amant suam, non quia vera est, sed quia sua est.

> let no one now be troublesome to me by saying to me, 'Moses did not mean this which you say, but he meant this which I say.' for if he were to say to me, 'whence do you know Moses to have meant this, which you are uttering from these his words?', I ought to bear it with an even mind and would perhaps answer what I answered above, or somewhat more copiously, if he were harder. but when he says, 'he did not mean this that you say, but what I say,' and yet does not deny that what each of us says is true, that both are true, o life of the poor, my god, in whose bosom there is no contradiction, rain down mitigations for me into my heart, that I may bear such as these patiently. who do not say this to me because they are divine and in the heart of your servant have seen what they say, but because they are proud and have not known Moses’ opinion, but love their own, not because it is true, but because it is their own.

alioquin et aliam veram pariter amarent, sicut ego amo quod dicunt quando verum dicunt, non quia ipsorum est sed quia verum est: et ideo iam nec ipsorum est, quia verum est. si autem ideo ament illud quia verum est, iam et ipsorum est et meum est, quoniam in commune omnium est veritatis amatorum. illud autem quod contendunt non hoc sensisse Moysen quod ego dico, sed quod ipsi dicunt, nolo, non amo, quia etsi ita est, tamen ista temeritas non scientiae sed audaciae est, nec visus sed typhus eam peperit.

otherwise they would equally love another true thing as well, just as I love what they say when they say what is true, not because it is theirs but because it is true—and therefore now it is not even theirs, because it is true. But if for this reason they love that, because it is true, now it is both theirs and mine, since it belongs in common to all lovers of truth. But that for which they contend—that Moses did not mean this which I say, but what they themselves say—I do not will, I do not love; for even if it is so, still that rashness is of not knowledge but audacity, and not vision but typhus (proud blindness) begot it.

ideoque, domine, tremenda sunt iudicia tua, quoniam veritas tua nec mea est nec illius aut illius, sed omnium nostrum quos ad eius communionem publice vocas, terribiliter admonens nos ut eam nolimus habere privatam, ne privemur ea. nam quisquis id quod tu omnibus ad fruendum proponis sibi proprie vindicat, et suum vult esse quod omnium est, a communi propellitur ad sua, hoc est a veritate ad mendacium. qui enim loquitur mendacium, de suo loquitur.

and therefore, Lord, your judgments are to be trembled at, since your truth is neither mine nor this one’s or that one’s, but of all of us whom you publicly call to its communion, terribly admonishing us that we should not wish to have it as private, lest we be deprived of it. For whoever vindicates for himself as proper that which you set forth to all for enjoyment, and wants to have as his own what is everyone’s, is driven from the common to his own, that is, from truth to mendacity. For he who speaks a lie, speaks from his own.

12.25.35

attende, iudex optime, deus, ipsa veritas, attende quid dicam contradictori huic, attende. coram te enim dico et coram fratribus meis, qui legitime utuntur lege usque ad finem caritatis. attende et vide quid ei dicam, si placet tibi.

Attend, most excellent judge, God, the very Truth, attend to what I shall say to this contradictor, attend. For before you I speak and before my brothers, who use the law legitimately unto the end of charity. Attend and see what I shall say to him, if it pleases you.

hanc enim vocem huic refero fraternam et pacificam: 'si ambo videmus verum esse quod dicis et ambo videmus verum esse quod dico, ubi, quaeso, id videmus? nec ego utique in te nec tu in me, sed ambo in ipsa quae supra mentes nostras est incommutabili veritate. cum ergo de ipsa domini dei nostri luce non contendamus, cur de proximi cogitatione contendimus, quam sic videre non possumus ut videtur incommutabilis veritas, quando, si ipse Moyses apparuisset nobis atque dixisset: ''hoc cogitavi,'' nec sic eam videremus, sed crederemus?

for I return to this man a fraternal and pacific utterance: 'if we both see that what you say is true and we both see that what I say is true, where, I ask, do we see it? neither I, assuredly, in you nor you in me, but both in the immutable truth itself which is above our minds. since, therefore, we do not contend about the very light of our lord god, why do we contend about our neighbor’s cogitation, which we cannot see in the way that the immutable truth is seen, since, if Moses himself had appeared to us and had said: ''this I thought,'' not even so would we see it, but would believe?'

non itaque supra quam scriptum est unus pro altero infletur adversus alterum. diligamus dominum deum nostrum ex toto corde, ex tota anima, ex tota mente nostra, et proximum nostrum sicut nosmet ipsos. propter quae duo praecepta caritatis sensisse Moysen, quidquid in illis libris sensit, nisi crediderimus, mendacem faciemus dominum, cum de animo conservi aliter quam ille docuit opinamur.

Therefore, let not one be puffed up for one against another beyond what is written. Let us love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and our neighbor as our very selves. And unless we believe that Moses, whatever he perceived in those books, perceived it on account of these two precepts of charity, we shall make the Lord a liar, when we opine about the mind of a fellow-servant otherwise than He taught.

iam vide quam stultum sit, in tanta copia verissimarum sententiarum quae de illis verbis erui possunt, temere adfirmare quam earum Moyses potissimum senserit, et perniciosis contentionibus ipsam offendere caritatem propter quam dixit omnia, cuius dicta conamur exponere.'

now see how foolish it is, in such a copious abundance of most-true opinions that can be extracted from those words, rashly to affirm which of them Moses most especially intended, and by pernicious contentions to offend Charity itself for the sake of which he said all things, whose dicta we are trying to expound.'

12.26.36

et tamen ego, deus meus, celsitudo humilitatis meae et requies laboris mei, qui audis confessiones meas et dimittis peccata mea, quoniam tu mihi praecipis ut diligam proximum meum sicut me ipsum, non possum minus credere de Moyse fidelissimo famulo tuo quam mihi optarem ac desiderarem abs te dari muneris, si tempore illo natus essem quo ille eoque loci me constituisses, ut per servitutem cordis ac linguae meae litterae illae dispensarentur quae tanto post essent omnibus gentibus profuturae et per universum orbem tanto auctoritatis culmine omnium falsarum superbarumque doctrinarum verba superaturae. vellem quippe, si tunc ego essem Moyses (ex eadem namque massa omnes venimus; et quid est homo, nisi quia memor es eius?), vellem ergo, si tunc ego essem quod ille et mihi abs te Geneseos liber scribendus adiungeretur, talem mihi eloquendi facultatem dari et eum texendi sermonis modum ut neque illi qui nondum queunt intellegere quemadmodum creat deus, tamquam excedentia vires suas, dicta recusarent et illi qui hoc iam possunt, in quamlibet veram sententiam cogitando venissent, eam non praetermissam in paucis verbis tui famuli reperirent, et si alius aliam vidisset in luce veritatis, nec ipsa in eisdem verbis intellegenda deesset.

and yet I, my God, the loftiness of my humility and the rest of my toil, you who hear my confessions and remit my sins, since you command me to love my neighbor as myself, cannot believe less about Moses, your most faithful servant, than I would wish and desire to be given to me from you as a gift, if I had been born at that time when he was and you had placed me in that position, that through the servitude of my heart and tongue those letters should be dispensed which much later would be profitable to all the nations and, through the whole world, with so great a summit of authority, would overcome the words of all false and proud doctrines. For I would wish, if then I were Moses (for from the same lump we all come; and what is man, save that you are mindful of him?), I would wish therefore, if then I were what he was, and the book of Genesis were joined to me by you to be written, that such a faculty of speaking be given to me and such a mode of weaving discourse that neither those who are not yet able to understand how God creates would reject the sayings as exceeding their powers, and that those who can already do this, to whatever true opinion they had come by thinking, would find it not omitted in the few words of your servant; and if another had seen another [meaning] in the light of truth, that also would not be lacking to be understood in the same words.

12.27.37

sicut enim fons in parvo loco uberior est pluribusque rivis in ampliora spatia fluxum ministrat quam quilibet eorum rivorum qui per multa locorum ab eodem fonte deducitur, ita narratio dispensatoris tui sermocinaturis pluribus profutura parvo sermonis modulo scatet fluenta liquidae veritatis, unde sibi quisque verum quod de his rebus potest, hic illud, ille illud, per longiores loquellarum anfractus trahat. alii enim cum haec verba legunt vel audiunt, cogitant deum, quasi hominem aut quasi aliquam molem immensa praeditam potestate novo quodam et repentino placito extra se ipsam tamquam locis distantibus, fecisse caelum et terram, duo magna corpora supra et infra, quibus omnia continerentur, et cum audiunt, 'dixit deus: fiat illud, et factum est illud,' cogitant verba coepta et finita, sonantia temporibus atque transeuntia, post quorum transitum statim existere quod iussum est ut existeret, et si quid forte aliud hoc modo ex familiaritate carnis opinantur. in quibus adhuc parvulis animalibus, dum isto humillimo genere verborum tamquam materno sinu eorum gestatur infirmitas, salubriter aedificatur fides, qua certum habeant et teneant deum fecisse omnes naturas quas eorum sensus mirabili varietate circumspicit.

For as a fountain in a small place is more abundant and ministers its flow by more rills into ampler spaces than any one of those rills which through many places is led off from the same fountain, so the narration of your steward, destined to be profitable to more discoursers, in a small modulus of speech gushes forth streams of liquid truth, whence each draws for himself the truth he can about these matters—this one this, that one that—through the longer windings of utterances. For others, when they read or hear these words, think of God, as if a man or as if some mass endowed with immense power, by some new and sudden decree outside himself, as though by distant places, to have made heaven and earth, two great bodies, above and below, in which all things were contained; and when they hear, ‘God said: let that be, and that was made,’ they think of words begun and finished, sounding in times and passing away, after whose passing there immediately exists what was ordered to exist, and perhaps anything else in this mode they opine from their familiarity with the flesh. Among whom, as still little living creatures, while by this most humble kind of words, as in a maternal bosom, their weakness is carried, faith is salutarily edified, whereby they may hold sure and keep that God made all the natures which their senses survey with wondrous variety.

quorum si quispiam quasi vilitatem dictorum aspernatus extra nutritorias cunas superba inbecillitate se extenderit, heu! cadet miser et, domine deus, miserere, ne implumem pullum conculcent qui transeunt viam, et mitte angelum tuum, qui eum reponat in nido, ut vivat donec volet.

If any one of them, as though scorning the vileness of the sayings, should in proud infirmity stretch himself beyond the nursing cradles, alas! the wretch will fall; and, Lord God, have mercy, lest those who pass along the way trample the unfledged chick, and send your angel to put him back in the nest, that he may live until he wills.

12.28.38

alii vero, quibus haec verba non iam nidus sed opaca frutecta sunt, vident in eis latentes fructus et volitant laetantes et garriunt scrutantes et carpunt eos. vident enim, cum haec verba legunt vel audiunt tua, deus aeterne, stabili permansione cuncta praeterita et futura tempora superari, nec tamen quicquam esse temporalis creaturae quod tu non feceris, cuius voluntas, quia id est quod tu, nullo modo mutata vel quae antea non fuisset exorta voluntate fecisti omnia, non de te similitudinem tuam formam omnium sed de nihilo dissimilitudinem informem, quae formaretur per similitudinem tuam recurrens in te unum pro captu ordinato, quantum cuique rerum in suo genere datum est, et fierent omnia bona valde, sive maneant circa te sive gradatim remotiore distantia per tempora et locos pulchras mutationes faciant aut patiantur. vident haec et gaudent in luce veritatis tuae, quantulum hic valent.

but others, for whom these words are now no longer a nest but shadowy thickets, see in them hidden fruits, and they flit rejoicing and chatter as they search and pluck them. For they see, when they read or hear these your words, O eternal God, that by stable permanence all past and future times are surpassed, and yet that there is nothing among temporal creatures that you have not made—whose will, because it is what you are, having in no way been changed, nor with a will arisen which previously had not been, you made all things—not out of yourself—your similitude, the form of all things—but out of nothing a formless dissimilitude, which might be formed through your similitude, returning into you, the One, according to an ordered capacity, as much as has been given to each thing in its kind; and that all things might become very good, whether they remain around you, or by a more remote distance step by step through times and places make or undergo beautiful mutations. They see these things and rejoice in the light of your truth, however little they are able here.

12.28.39

et alius eorum intendit in id quod dictum est, 'in principio fecit deus,' et respicit sapientiam, principium, quia et loquitur ipsa nobis. alius itidem intendit in eadem verba et principium intellegit exordium rerum conditarum et sic accipit 'in principio fecit' ac si diceretur 'primo fecit'. atque in eis qui intellegunt 'in principio' quod in sapientia fecisti caelum et terram, alius eorum ipsum caelum et terram, creabilem materiam caeli et terrae, sic esse credit cognominatam, alius iam formatas distinctasque naturas, alius unam formatam eandemque spiritalem caeli nomine, aliam informem corporalis materiae terrae nomine. qui autem intellegunt in nominibus caeli et terrae adhuc informem materiam, de qua formaretur caelum et terra, nec ipsi uno modo id intellegunt, sed alius, unde consummaretur intellegibilis sensibilisque creatura, alius tantum, unde sensibilis moles ista corporea sinu grandi continens perspicuas promptasque naturas.

and another of them directs his attention to what has been said, 'in the beginning God made,' and looks back to Wisdom, the Beginning/Principle, since she herself also speaks to us. another likewise directs his attention to the same words and understands the beginning as the exordium of created things, and so takes 'in the beginning he made' as if it were said 'first he made'. and among those who understand 'in the beginning' to mean that in Wisdom you made heaven and earth, one of them believes that heaven and earth themselves, the creatable material of heaven and earth, have thus been called by name, another that already formed and distinct natures are meant, another that one is formed and the same—spiritual—under the name of heaven, the other formless—of corporeal matter—under the name of earth. but those who understand in the names of heaven and earth a still formless matter, from which heaven and earth were to be formed, not even they understand it in one way: rather, one thinks it is that from which the intelligible and sensible creature would be consummated, another only that from which this corporeal mass, in its vast bosom containing clear and ready natures, would be (constituted).

nec illi uno modo, qui iam dispositas digestasque creaturas caelum et terram vocari hoc loco credunt, sed alius invisibilem atque visibilem, alius solam visibilem, in qua luminosum caelum suspicimus et terram caliginosam quaeque in eis sunt.

nor do they [understand it] in one way, who believe that the creatures already arranged and ordered are called “heaven and earth” in this place; but one [takes it as] the invisible and the visible, another only the visible, in which we gaze upon the luminous heaven and the caliginous earth, and the things which are in them.

12.29.40

at ille qui non aliter accipit 'in principio fecit' quam si diceretur 'primo fecit' non habet quomodo veraciter intellegat caelum et terram, nisi materiam caeli et terrae intellegat, videlicet universae, id est intellegibilis corporalisque, creaturae. si enim iam formatam velit universam, recte ab eo quaeri poterit, si hoc primo fecit deus, quid fecerit deinceps, et post universitatem non inveniet ac per hoc audiet invitus, 'quomodo illud primo, si postea nihil?' cum vero dicit primo informem, deinde formatam, non est absurdus, si modo est idoneus discernere quid praecedat aeternitate, quid tempore, quid electione, quid origine: aeternitate, sicut deus omnia; tempore, sicut flos fructum; electione, sicut fructus florem; origine, sicut sonus cantum. in his quattuor primum et ultimum quae commemoravi difficillime intelleguntur, duo media facillime.

but he who does not otherwise take 'in the beginning he made' than as if it were said 'first he made' has no way to understand 'heaven and earth' truly, unless he understands the matter of heaven and earth, namely of the universal creation, that is, of the intelligible and the corporeal. For if he should wish the whole to be already formed, it can rightly be asked of him, if God made this first, what he made thereafter; and after the totality he will not find anything, and so he will unwillingly hear, 'how was that first, if afterwards there is nothing?' But when he says, first unformed, then formed, he is not absurd, provided only that he is competent to discern what precedes by eternity, what by time, what by election, what by origin: by eternity, as God [precedes] all things; by time, as the flower [precedes] the fruit; by election, as the fruit [precedes] the flower; by origin, as sound [precedes] song. Of these four, the first and the last that I have mentioned are most difficult to understand, the two middle ones most easy.

namque rara visio est et nimis ardua conspicere, domine, aeternitatem tuam incommutabiliter mutabilia facientem ac per hoc priorem. quis deinde sic acutum cernat animo, ut sine labore magno dinoscere valeat quomodo sit prior sonus quam cantus, ideo quia cantus est formatus sonus et esse utique aliquid non formatum potest, formari autem quod non est non potest? sic est prior materies quam id quod ex ea fit, non ea prior quia ipsa efficit, cum potius fiat, nec prior intervallo temporis.

for indeed it is a rare vision and too arduous to behold, Lord, your eternity making mutable things immutably and thereby prior. who then has a mind so acute as to be able, without great labor, to discern how sound is prior to song, for this reason, because song is a formed sound, and indeed something unformed can exist, but what is not cannot be formed? thus matter is prior to that which is made from it, not prior because it itself produces it, since rather it is produced, nor prior by an interval of time.

neque enim priore tempore sonos edimus informes sine cantu et eos posteriore tempore in formam cantici coaptamus aut fingimus, sicut ligna, quibus arca, vel argentum, quo vasculum fabricatur. tales quippe materiae tempore etiam praecedunt formas rerum quae fiunt ex eis, at in cantu non ita est. cum enim cantatur, auditur sonus eius, non prius informiter sonat et deinde formatur in cantum.

For we do not at an earlier time emit formless sounds without a chant and at a later time coapt or fashion them into the form of a chant, as with wood, from which a chest, or silver, from which a little vessel is fabricated. For such materials do even in time precede the forms of the things that are made from them; but in song it is not so. For when a chant is sung, its sound is heard; it does not first sound formlessly and then be formed into a chant.

quod enim primo utcumque sonuerit, praeterit, nec ex eo quicquam reperies quod resumptum arte componas. et ideo cantus in sono suo vertitur, qui sonus eius materies eius est. idem quippe formatur, ut cantus sit.

For whatever has sounded at first, however it may have, passes away, and from it you will find nothing which, resumed, you might compose by art. And therefore the song is turned upon its own sound, and that sound is its matter. For the same thing is formed, that it may be a song.

et ideo, sicut dicebam, prior materies sonandi quam forma cantandi. non per faciendi potentiam prior: neque enim sonus est cantandi artifex, sed cantanti animae subiacet ex corpore, de quo cantum faciat; nec tempore prior: simul enim cum cantu editur; nec prior electione: non enim potior sonus quam cantus, quandoquidem cantus est non tantum sonus verum etiam speciosus sonus. sed prior est origine, quia non cantus formatur ut sonus sit, sed sonus formatur ut cantus sit.

and therefore, as I was saying, the matter of sounding is prior to the form of singing. not prior by a power of making: for sound is not the artificer of singing, but lies subject to the soul that sings, from the body, out of which it may make a song; nor prior in time: for it is produced at the same time with the song; nor prior by choice: for sound is not preferable to song, since a song is not only sound but a beautiful sound. but it is prior in origin, because it is not the song that is formed in order to be sound, but the sound is formed in order to be song.

hoc exemplo qui potest intellegat materiam rerum primo factam et appellatam caelum et terram, quia inde facta sunt caelum et terra, nec tempore primo factam, quia formae rerum exserunt tempora, illa autem erat informis iamque in temporibus simul animadvertitur, nec tamen de illa narrari aliquid potest, nisi velut tempore prior sit, cum pendatur extremior, quia profecto meliora sunt formata quam informia, et praecedatur aeternitate creatoris, ut esset de nihilo, unde aliquid fieret.

By this example let whoever can understand that the materia of things was first made and called “heaven and earth,” because from it were made heaven and earth; and not first made in time, because the formae of things bring forth (exsert) the times, but that was formless and already is observed as at once within the times; and yet nothing can be narrated about it unless as though it were prior in time, although it is weighed as the more extreme (later), because assuredly things formed are better than things unformed, and let it be preceded by the eternity of the Creator, so that it might be out of nothing (de nihilo), whence something might be made.

12.30.41

in hac diversitate sententiarum verarum concordiam pariat ipsa veritas, et deus noster misereatur nostri, ut legitime lege utamur, praecepti fine, pura caritate. ac per hoc, si quis quaerit ex me quid horum Moyses, tuus ille famulus, senserit, non sunt hi sermones confessionum mearum si tibi non confiteor, 'nescio.' et scio tamen illas veras esse sententias (exceptis carnalibus, de quibus quantum existimavi locutus sum -- quos tamen bonae spei parvulos haec verba libri tui non territant alta humiliter et pauca copiose), sed omnes quos in eis verbis vera cernere ac dicere fateor, diligamus nos invicem pariterque diligamus te, deum nostrum, fontem veritatis, si non vana sed ipsam sitimus, eundemque famulum tuum, scripturae huius dispensatorem, spiritu tuo plenum, ita honoremus, ut hoc eum te revelante, cum haec scriberet, attendisse credamus quod in eis maxime et luce veritatis et fruge utilitatis excellit.

in this diversity of true opinions may Truth herself bring forth concord, and may our God have mercy upon us, that we may use the Law lawfully, with the end of the precept, pure charity. And through this, if anyone asks of me which of these Moses, that servant of yours, sensed, these are not the words of my Confessions if I do not confess to you, 'I do not know.' And yet I know that those opinions are true (the carnal ones excepted, about whom I have spoken as much as I judged fit — whom, however, these words of your book do not terrify, little ones of good hope, lofty things humbly and few things copiously), but as for all whom I acknowledge to discern and to speak true things in those words, let us love one another and equally let us love you, our God, the fountain of truth, if we thirst not for vanities but for Truth herself; and that same servant of yours, the steward of this Scripture, full of your Spirit, let us so honor, that we believe that, with you revealing it, when he was writing these things, he attended to that which in them most excels both in the light of truth and in the fruit of utility.

12.31.42

ita cum alius dixerit, 'hoc sensit quod ego,' et alius, 'immo illud quod ego,' religiosius me arbitror dicere, 'cur non utrumque potius, si utrumque verum est, et si quid tertium et si quid quartum et si quid omnino aliud verum quispiam in his verbis videt, cur non illa omnia vidisse credatur, per quem deus unus sacras litteras vera et diversa visuris multorum sensibus temperavit?' ego certe, quod intrepidus de meo corde pronuntio, si ad culmen auctoritatis aliquid scriberem, sic mallem scribere ut quod veri quisque de his rebus capere posset mea verba resonarent, quam ut unam veram sententiam ad hoc apertius ponerem, ut excluderem ceteras quarum falsitas me non posset offendere. nolo itaque, deus meus, tam praeceps esse ut hoc illum virum de te meruisse non credam. sensit ille omnino in his verbis atque cogitavit, cum ea scriberet, quidquid hic veri potuimus invenire et quidquid nos non potuimus aut nondum potuimus et tamen in eis inveniri potest.

thus when one says, 'he meant what I [mean],' and another, 'nay, that which I [mean],' I judge it more religious to say, 'why not rather both, if both are true; and if someone sees in these words anything third and anything fourth and anything at all else true, why should he not be believed to have seen all those things, by whom the one God tempered the sacred letters to the senses of many who would see true and diverse things?' I for my part—what I pronounce unflinchingly from my heart—if I were writing something to the summit of authority, I would rather write so that my words would resonate with whatever of truth each person could grasp concerning these matters, than set forth one true sentiment more openly to this end, namely, to exclude the others, whose falsity could not offend me. I do not wish, therefore, my God, to be so headlong as not to believe that that man merited this from you. He altogether perceived in these words and considered, when he wrote them, whatever of truth we have been able to discover here, and whatever we have not been able or have not yet been able, and yet can be discovered in them.

12.32.43

postremo, domine, qui deus es et non caro et sanguis, si quid homo minus vidit, numquid et spiritum tuum bonum, qui deducet me in terram rectam, latere potuit, quidquid eras in eis verbis tu ipse revelaturus legentibus posteris, etiamsi ille per quem dicta sunt unam fortassis ex multis veris sententiam cogitavit? quod si ita est, sit igitur illa quam cogitavit ceteris excelsior. nobis autem, domine, aut ipsam demonstra aut quam placet alteram veram, ut sive nobis hoc quod etiam illi homini tuo sive aliud ex eorundem verborum occasione patefacias, tu tamen pascas, non error inludat.

finally, Lord, who are God and not flesh and blood, if any man perceived less, could even your Good Spirit, who will lead me into a level land, have lain hidden—whatever you yourself were going to reveal in those words to readers of posterity—even if he through whom they were spoken perhaps conceived one sense out of many true ones? and if it is so, let that one which he conceived be more exalted than the rest. but for us, Lord, either demonstrate that very one or another true one as it pleases you, so that whether you disclose to us this which you also disclosed to that your man, or another by occasion of the same words, you nevertheless may feed, let not error delude.

ecce, domine deus meus, quam multa de paucis verbis, quam multa, oro te, scripsimus! quae nostrae vires, quae tempora omnibus libris tuis ad istum modum sufficient? sine me itaque brevius in eis confiteri tibi et eligere unum aliquid quod tu inspiraveris verum, certum et bonum, etiamsi multa occurrerint, ubi multa occurrere poterunt, ea fide confessionis meae ut, si hoc dixero quod sensit minister tuus, recte atque optime (id enim conari me oportet), quod si adsecutus non fuero, id tamen dicam quod mihi per eius verba tua veritas dicere voluerit, quae illi quoque dixit quod voluit.

Behold, Lord my God, how many things out of few words—how many, I beg you—we have written! What strength of ours, what times will suffice for all your books in this manner? Allow me, therefore, to confess to you more briefly in them and to choose some one thing which you have inspired as true, certain, and good, even if many things have occurred, where many could occur, with this faith of my confession: that, if I shall say that which your minister sensed, it is rightly and most excellently said (for that indeed is what I ought to strive for); but if I shall not have attained it, I will nonetheless say that which your Truth has willed to say to me through his words—the same that it willed to say to him.

Submitted by James J. O'Donnell (Univ. of Pennsylvania) from his new edition. Prof.

O'Donnell's introduction and commentary may be found at the original site: The Confessions of Augustine: An Electronic Edition